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Brokers Obtaining Quotes

Obtaining Quotes

MonarkHQ supports two ways to obtain insurance quotes for a Group within a Proposal:

  • Instant Quotes — off-the-shelf rates returned immediately
  • RFPs (Requests for Proposal) — custom, underwritten quotes provided by carrier representatives

This guide covers both approaches.

1. Understanding Quotes

How Quotes Fit in the Workflow

Quotes are always tied to:

  • One Employer
  • One Group (plan year)
  • One Proposal

Quotes are the inputs that ultimately become Proposal Items presented to the Employer for selection.

Quoting Methods Overview

| Method | Best For | Coverage Types | Process | | ------------------ | ---------------------------- | ------------------ | ----------------------------------- | | Instant Quotes | Small groups, standard plans | Medical, Pet | Automatic, immediate | | RFPs | All groups, custom designs | All coverage types | Broker-configured, carrier response |

Accessing the Quotes Section

  1. Navigate to the Proposal
  2. Open the Quotes tab
  3. The Quotes tab shows separate coverage cards for Instant Quotes and RFP quotes — each coverage type appears in its own card, so you can view instant quote results and RFP configurations side by side
  4. Select the coverage type you want to quote

Each saved quote on the Quotes tab shows its monthly Total. When contributions are set, the Employer and Employee amounts appear beneath it. A part that can't be priced reads Unavailable.

Quote and offer pages that open outside the proposal's step bar have a Return to Quotes link at the top that takes you back to the Quotes tab.

2. Getting Instant Medical Quotes

Instant Quotes provide immediate access to pre-filed, off-the-shelf medical plans without manual underwriting.

Requirements

Before requesting instant quotes:

  • A Group must exist
  • Census data must be uploaded
  • The Group must include at least one employee
  • All members must have valid ZIP codes

Note: Over-age child dependents do not block quoting. Dependents above the carrier's dependent age limit are deliberately left out of the rating sync, so they never receive a sync ID. They are no longer counted when Monark checks whether the census is ready to quote — a census whose only unsynced members are over-age dependents will quote normally. See Over-Age Dependent Coverage for how those members are handled.

How to Get Instant Quotes

  1. From the Quotes tab, select Medical
  2. Click Get Instant Quotes
  3. MonarkHQ will:
    • Sync the Group’s census data
    • Request available plans for the Group
    • Display results when ready (typically 15–30 seconds)

Viewing Instant Quote Results

Available plans are displayed with:

Plan Information

  • Carrier name
  • Plan name
  • Plan type (HMO, PPO, EPO, POS, HDHP)
  • Network breadth
  • HSA eligibility

Monthly Rates

  • Employee Only
  • Employee + Spouse
  • Employee + Children
  • Family

Key Benefits

  • Deductible (individual / family)
  • Out-of-pocket maximum
  • Primary care copay
  • Specialist copay
  • Emergency room copay
  • Prescription drug copays

In the Available Plans table, each plan row shows Carrier, Plan, Type, Providers (network size), Total, Co-Pay, Deductible, OOP Max and Coinsurance:

  • Co-Pay sits between Total and Deductible and shows the in-network primary care copay (hover the info icon for "In-Network Primary Care Copay"). Only a true flat copay is shown. Plans that use coinsurance or a descriptive value show a dash (—).
  • Providers can be sorted. The first click puts the broadest networks at the top, and plans with no provider count always sort to the bottom.

Filtering and Sorting

Use filters to refine results:

| Filter | Options | | --------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Search | Carrier or plan name | | Carrier | Select specific carriers | | Plan Type | HMO, PPO, EPO, POS, HDHP | | Plan Level | Metal tier (quick-filter buttons or the Plan Level menu) | | Deductible | Range slider in $500 steps (individual, in-network deductible), with Reset | | Infertility treatment rider | Has infertility rider, Doesn't have infertility rider, or Both (the default, which shows every plan) | | Sort By | Total, Carrier, Plan Type, Providers (network size) |

Your filters are saved in the page URL, so you can reload or share the view without losing them. Click Clear Filters to reset all of them, including Deductible and Infertility treatment rider. The plan browser you use to pick plans by hand has the same three-way infertility filter.

Selecting Plans for the Proposal

  1. Click a plan to select it
  2. Selected plans are visually highlighted
  3. Use Select All to add multiple plans
  4. Click Add to Proposal

Selected plans become Proposal Items.

Plan Documents

Many plans include:

  • Benefits Summary
  • SBC (Summary of Benefits and Coverage)

Documents open in a new tab for review or download.

Note: When browsing renewal plans, the plan browser includes a Coinsurance column alongside other benefit details, making it straightforward to compare out-of-pocket cost sharing across renewal options. Renewal premiums count only the members assigned to each renewal plan. Plan details show a Total for Assigned Members, plans with no assigned members show Not mapped, and Rates unavailable appears when rates are missing for some assigned members.

Plan Year Availability

Off-the-shelf rates are only published for plan years the rating source has released. If you request quotes for an effective date in a plan year that isn't available yet, Monark now tells you so directly — for example, "Ideon cannot quote a 2027 effective date yet. Choose an earlier effective date and try again."

Previously this surfaced as a generic Forbidden error, which read like a login or permissions problem. If you see the plan year message, check the Group's effective date rather than your account access.

If you instead see "This group is not set up with a producer NPN in Ideon yet. Re-sync the group, then request the quote again.", re-sync the group's census and request the quote again.

Quote Freshness

Instant quotes are a snapshot taken when the rates were fetched, and the Quote Details card shows the date: "Rates fetched Sep 2, 2026". Carriers often add their rates for a future quarter over several weeks. So when a quote is more than 14 days old and its effective date is still in the future, the line turns into an amber warning: "Carriers may have added rates since — refresh to get the latest available plans." Click Refresh rates to re-quote the group and pick up any carriers that have loaded since.

Note: Refreshing rates updates the browsable results in the quote view only — it does not change any plans already added to a Proposal.

Quote Comparison Indicators

When viewing medical instant quotes in the compare view, a BASE PLAN NOT APPLIED badge may appear on a plan's overview card. This badge indicates that the quote's contribution configuration references a base plan whose settings have not yet been applied to this specific quote — typically because the quote is newly created or was re-quoted from scratch. If you see this badge, review the employer contribution configuration to confirm the base plan is correctly applied before including this quote in the Proposal.

Participation Minimums

Some carriers require a minimum participation rate (the percentage of eligible employees who enroll) before they will offer coverage. When this threshold is not met, those carriers are hidden from the instant quote results.

If carriers are hidden because of participation, a Some carriers are not shown banner appears in the quote details. It explains that CalChoice and CoveredCA require at least 70% participation and shows the participation this quote was created with. Carriers count employees with valid waivers (spouse coverage, Medicare, other group coverage) as participating, so the group's true participation may be higher than the calculated figure.

Overriding participation requirements:

If you have received confirmation from a carrier that they will provide a quote despite low participation, you can override the threshold:

  1. Click Set participation override in the banner. You can also click the pencil icon next to Group participation at the top of the Medical Insurance Quotes page.
  2. In the Participation Override dialog, enter the group's true Participation percentage and click Save
  3. Monark re-quotes the group at that participation and opens the new quote, so carriers that were below their minimum reappear

To remove an override, open the same dialog and click Clear override.

Use overrides only when you have explicit carrier approval — participation thresholds exist for underwriting reasons.

Missing Carrier Warning

If one or more carriers are regionally available but return no quote rates for the group, a missing carrier warning banner appears at the top of the instant medical quote page.

The banner identifies which carriers have no available rates. When the absent carrier is the group's current medical carrier, the warning is escalated — flagging a potential coverage continuity concern to address with the employer before finalizing the quote.

Note: The missing carrier warning is distinct from the participation minimum warning. Participation warnings hide carriers based on enrollment thresholds; the missing carrier warning flags carriers that are geographically available but returned no off-the-shelf rates for this group.

When UnitedHealthcare returns no rates because the effective date is outside its enrollment window, the banner says so: "UnitedHealthcare only quotes effective dates within its current enrollment window…" To include UnitedHealthcare, use an earlier effective date or re-quote closer to the effective date.

UnitedHealthcare and Your NPN

In Arizona, New York, California and Utah, UnitedHealthcare quotes through its own carrier connection, and its plans appear in instant medical quotes alongside the other carriers. UnitedHealthcare only returns rates there when a National Producer Number (NPN) appointed with them is on file. Quoting is never blocked: other carriers quote normally either way.

  • If you have no NPN on your profile, Monark sends your agency's NPN instead.
  • Before you quote a group in one of these states, a dismissible amber note appears if an NPN is missing. Add your NPN opens your Profile, and Add agency NPN opens your Organization's Licensing & Compliance card.
  • If UnitedHealthcare is missing from the results for the same reason, the missing carrier warning shows the same links. Add the NPN, then re-quote to include UnitedHealthcare.

For details on NPNs, state licenses and E&O, see the Licensing & Compliance (NPN, State Licenses, E&O) article.

Getting Instant Pet Quotes

In addition to medical, Monark supports instant pet coverage quotes through a basket and compare flow.

How to Get Pet Instant Quotes

  1. From the Quotes tab, select Pet
  2. Click Get Pet Quotes
  3. Available plans appear as cards with carrier, coverage level, and monthly rates

Browsing and Comparing Plans

The pet quoting interface uses a basket model:

  • Click Add to Basket on any plan to shortlist it
  • Click Compare to view selected plans side by side in a detailed sheet
  • A selection tray at the bottom tracks your basket and lets you add plans to the Proposal when ready

Filtering Plans

Use filters to narrow results by carrier, coverage level, and deductible tier.

3. Configuring an RFP

When instant quotes aren't available—or when you need customized underwriting—you'll configure an RFP (Request for Proposal).

What Is an RFP?

An RFP defines the plan design and coverage requirements for a specific Group.

Carrier representatives respond with custom quotes based on the configuration.

Coverage Types That Use RFPs

| Coverage | Description | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------- | | Dental | PPO or HMO dental plans | | Vision | Vision care coverage | | Life & AD&D | Employer- and employee-paid life | | Disability | Short- and long-term disability | | Accident | Voluntary accident coverage | | Hospital Indemnity | Hospital cash benefits | | Critical Illness | Lump-sum illness benefits | | Medical (custom) | When instant quotes aren’t sufficient |

General RFP Workflow

  1. From the Quotes tab, select a coverage type
  2. Configure the plan design
  3. Save the configuration
  4. Send RFPs to carrier representatives

4. Coverage-Specific RFP Configuration

Plan Configuration Templates

When configuring an RFP for any coverage type, MonarkHQ provides plan configuration templates to speed up setup. Templates pre-fill standard plan designs for Medical, Dental, Vision, Life & Disability, and supplemental lines (Accident, Hospital Indemnity, Critical Illness). You can customize any field after applying a template.

To use a template:

  1. Open the coverage configuration for your RFP
  2. Select a template from the available options
  3. Review and adjust any fields as needed
  4. Save the configuration

Dental RFP Configuration

Renewal vs. New Business

  • Mark This is a renewal if applicable
  • Upload current plan documents (optional)
  • AI can extract and prefill plan details; after upload, a field-level extraction summary shows exactly which fields were populated — review each field before saving to confirm accuracy. Rates extracted with low confidence are now included and flagged with the note "Rates extracted with low confidence — please verify" — do not skip reviewing these rates before saving
  • For Accident, Hospital Indemnity and Critical Illness documents with several rate tiers, MonarkHQ detects the per-tier layout and extracts rates for each tier

Plan Design

| Field | Options | Description | | -------------- | -------- | ------------------------- | | Plan Type | PPO, HMO | Network structure | | Waiting Period | Yes / No | Applies to major services |

PPO Coverage Levels (if applicable)

| Field | Options | | ----------------------- | ------------------------- | | Out-of-Network Coverage | MAC, UCR | | Annual Maximum | $1,000 – $5,000 or No Max | | Deductible | $0 – $100 | | Preventive | 80% – 100% | | Basic Services | 50% – 100% | | Major Services | 50% – 80% |

Orthodontics

| Field | Options | | ------------------ | --------------------------------- | | Coverage | Adult & Child / Child Only / None | | Adult Lifetime Max | $1,000 – $2,500 | | Child Lifetime Max | $1,000 – $2,500 | | Implant Coverage | Yes / No |

Commission Structure

| Field | Options | | ------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Method | Levelized, Heaped | | Type | Percentage, PEPM, PPPM | | Amount | Numeric value. When Type is Percentage, the amount is kept between 0 and 100 ("Percentage must be between 0 and 100") |

Current Rates (Renewals)

Used for benchmarking and carrier context.

| Rate Tier | Fields | | --------------------- | ------ | | Employee Only | Rate | | Employee + 1 | Rate | | Employee + Spouse | Rate | | Employee + Child(ren) | Rate | | Family | Rate |

Vision RFP Configuration

Configure:

  • Exam frequency
  • Frame allowance
  • Lens types
  • Contact lens allowance
  • Lens enhancements

Life & AD&D RFP Configuration

Configure:

  • Basic life structure
  • Supplemental life options
  • AD&D inclusion
  • Dependent life coverage
  • Age reductions and caps

Rates are based on age bands, volume, and tobacco status.

AD&D rates on every rate structure. When entering current rates on a Life renewal, the Add AD&D rate checkbox and its rate field are available for all rate tier types — composite, multi-tier, and age-banded — not just the single composite employee rate. The AD&D rate is a single flat per-unit value that combines with each life rate when premiums are calculated.

Note: The combined life + AD&D preview figure is only shown for the single composite employee rate, because multi-tier and age-banded structures have no single combined number that could be shown accurately. The AD&D rate still applies in all cases.

When a Life renewal has multiple plans configured, each plan panel has its own independent AD&D checkbox and rate.

Employer-paid benefit levels by job class. Sometimes the census has more than one employer-paid life amount. When it does, Monark asks "How many employer-paid benefit levels?" before plan design.

  1. Mark which amounts are real benefit levels and which are only age reductions of a larger amount. Age reductions fold into their parent level.
  2. Click Create benefit levels. Monark creates one employer-paid configuration per level.
  3. On each level's Benefit Level — Job Classes card, choose the job classes it covers. With none selected, it "Applies to all employees". Pricing for a level counts only the members in its selected job classes.

Contribution basis. The Life configure page has no Employer Contribution Configuration box. Its steps are Life Plan Design, Commission Structure and Rates. Monark records whether the life plan is employer-paid or voluntary and shows it as a Contribution Basis row on the carrier RFP sheet and the Life export sheet. When no split is stored, the plan is treated as voluntary.

Calculating voluntary life. In the Rates section, Calculate works for banded (5-year, 10-year) and All Ages rate structures. Voluntary age-banded life is priced per $1,000 unit at each member's age band, including spouse and child coverage. For life, All Ages uses a per-age rate grid, so the single Employee Rate field is hidden.

For renewal configurations, a Member Breakdown section is available on the Life configure page, showing per-member cost calculations with employer contribution direction and any maximum cap applied.

Disability RFP Configuration

Short-Term Disability (STD)

| Field | Typical Range | | ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------- | | Benefit Percentage | 50% – 70% | | Weekly Maximum | $500 – $2,500 | | Elimination Period | 0 – 15 days (including 15/15 accident/illness split) | | Duration | 12 – 26 weeks |

Note: The 15/15 elimination period (15 days for accidents, 15 days for illness) is available as a distinct option separate from the standard day-count range. Note: For STD and LTD, a percentage-of-income option is available as an alternative to a fixed salary percentage. Common presets include 50%, 60%, and 66.67% of income — selecting one automatically configures the associated integration type for the plan.

Disability Renewal Rates

When entering current rates on a Disability renewal:

  • Age-banded and per-age rates are saved as entered. Disability rates are priced per unit of covered payroll and carry three decimal places (for example 0.055). These values are stored without rounding, so a rate like 0.055 is no longer rounded to 0.06 on save. Five-year and ten-year band structures are both supported and persist correctly.
  • Rate Per Unit defaults to the right basis for the plan type. LTD is rated per $100 of covered benefit and STD per $10, and the field pre-fills accordingly. Change it if the carrier rates on a different basis.
  • Save failures now say what went wrong. If a configuration can't be saved, the specific reason from the server is shown instead of a generic "Failed to save all configurations" message.
  • Rate setup. Rate Tier Type is fixed to Employee ("Disability rates are always Employee-only").
    • Banding sets the age bands. Choosing All Ages gives you one flat Employee Rate, not a grid of ages.
    • Rate Basis is either Earnings Amount or Benefit Amount, alongside Rate Per Unit.
    • Changing any pricing input clears a previously calculated total so you don't save a stale figure.
  • Premiums are calculated per unit. Calculate, the compare view, read-only offers and the member breakdown all work out each member's disability premium from salary, date of birth and the effective date, with an Earnings column shown. The Excel disability sheet lists the rate basis, rate per unit and plan maximum. Employee Worksheets show per-paycheck disability deductions and the plan maximum.

Uploading Disability Renewal Documents for Multi-Class Groups

Groups whose census carries more than one disability plan (for example separate STD plans by job class) can again upload renewal documents through the multi-plan upload area:

  1. Open the Disability coverage configuration and mark it as a renewal
  2. Drag in the current rate sheets or plan documents (PDF, Excel, Word, or image)
  3. Monark extracts each plan it finds and auto-matches the extracted plans to the plan names on your census
  4. Review the match confirmation screen — confirm or reassign each pairing before importing
  5. Confirm to apply the extracted rates and plan design into each matching plan configuration

Always review the auto-matched pairings. Where a carrier document lists several plans under similar names, the match is a best guess and is worth a second look before importing.

Long-Term Disability (LTD)

| Field | Typical Range | | ------------------ | ---------------- | | Benefit Percentage | 50% – 70% | | Monthly Maximum | $5,000 – $15,000 | | Elimination Period | 30 – 180 days | | Duration | 2 years – SSNRA | | Own Occupation | Yes / No |

Voluntary Coverage RFPs

Configure benefits for:

  • Accident
  • Hospital Indemnity
  • Critical Illness

Each allows customization of benefit triggers, amounts, and coverage tiers.

5. Multi-Plan Configurations

Most coverage types support multiple plan options in a single RFP, including medical (for non-renewal / new business configurations), dental, vision, and ancillary lines.

Adding Multiple Plans

  1. Click + Add Plan
  2. Configure the plan design
  3. Name each option clearly (e.g., "Dental PPO – Buy-Up", "Medical PPO – HSA Option")

Carrier reps respond to all configured plans independently.

When you import renewal rates for a medical renewal from a carrier document, check the import screen for this warning: "Only current-year rates were found in this document — no renewal rates were detected." If you apply anyway, the current rates are imported as the renewal rates. Confirm the document has the renewal rate table, or edit the rates after import. A rate workbook whose only rate columns are labeled as current-year (for example "Current Premium") is rejected, so upload the file with the renewal column or relabel the column.

For medical renewals, you can also configure alternative plan options alongside the renewal plan. Each alternative is stored as a separate RFP configuration, and carrier reps see all options with renewal plans clearly identified by a renewal badge.

Saving and Sending RFPs

Saving Configurations

Click Save Configuration to:

  • Store the plan design
  • Generate the RFP
  • Prepare it for distribution

Sending RFPs

After saving, send RFPs to carrier representatives.

See Sending RFPs for detailed instructions.

Custom Fields and Attachments

Custom Fields

Add additional instructions or clarifications:

  1. Click + Add Field
  2. Enter name and value
  3. Included in the RFP sent to carriers

Attachments

Upload supporting documents:

  • Current plan summaries
  • Rate sheets
  • Benefit guides

Supported formats: PDF, Excel, images.

6. Quoting Best Practices

Complete Configurations

  • Incomplete fields lead to incomplete quotes
  • More detail = better carrier responses

Use Renewal Documents

  • Upload current plans
  • Validate AI-extracted details
  • Improves competitiveness

Offer Multiple Options

  • 2–3 plans gives Employers meaningful choice
  • Highlights cost vs. benefit trade-offs

Next Steps

Once quotes are received, continue with: